Presentation given to the Cambridge Conference (July, 2013)

1. Geospatial Innovation and Legal
Implications
Cambridge Conference
July 23, 2013
Kevin D. Pomfret
Centre for Spatial Law and Policy

2. 2
Geospatial Technology
Now Is Pervasive

3. Resulting In Rapid Growth in Many
Diverse Uses of Geoinformation
 Social Media
– Geotagged photos, tweets,
 Smart phone apps
 Business Intelligence
– Big Data
 Open Data
 Law Enforcement
 Smart Grid
 Tracking (assets, loved ones)
 Sustainable Development
 Infectious Disease
 Disaster Response
 Climate Change
 Protecting Endangered Species
 Smart Cities
 Insurance
 Intelligent Transportation
Systems
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4. 4
And Creating A New
Geospatial Community
Universities,
Citizens, NGOs
Industry Government
Geospatial
Community
Data
Provider
Data
User
Data
User
Data
Provider
Data
Provider
Data Consumer

5. Innovation Will Lead To
“Location—enabled” Societies
5
Augmented Reality

6. Location-enabled Societies
Offer Numerous Benefits
 Cost-savings and Efficiencies
 Creates Jobs
 Improves Governance
 Provides Greater Transparency
 Vital in Addressing Transnational Issues
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7. Geospatial Community:
New Paradigm
 An international ecosystem that collects/uses/stores/distributes
geoinformation.
– Cuts across technology platforms, industry groups and user
communities.
 Products and services increasingly being developed based
upon aggregation all types of data collected from diverse
sources.
 Innovation is being done by all stakeholders in the community
 As a result policies/laws that impact the collection, impact,
and distribution in one segment will impact others.
– Traditional stovepipe approaches are obsolete/detrimental
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8. Innovation Coming From All Segments
of Geospatial Community


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9. Has Happened Almost Overnight
St. Peter’s Square - 2005
9 Luca Bruno/AP

10. St. Peter’s Square - 2013
10 Michael Sohn/AP

11. Policy/Legal Communities
Have Failed to Keep Up
 A number of policy/legal issues impact the
collection/use/storage/distribution of geoinformation
 Privacy
 Intellectual Property
 Licensing
 National Security
 Open Data
 Liability
 Policy/legal communities don’t understand geospatial
technology, geoinformation, and/or the geospatial
community
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12. Uncertainty Making It Increasingly Difficult to
Collect/Use/Store/Distribute Geoinformation
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13. Privacy
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14. Licensing/Data Sharing
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15. Legal/Policy Communities Are
Trying to Catch Up
 Narrowly Tailored/Broadly Worded
– Privacy Laws
– Restrictions on Drones
– Laws Regarding Data Quality
– National Security Directives and Policies
– Proposed “Convention on Geoinformation”
 Value of geoinformation often not realized
– Policies often about balancing benefits vs. perceived risk
 Often fail to recognize “unintended consequence”
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16. 16
Regulation of Geolocation Privacy
 Many of the efforts based upon “Fair Information
Practices” (FIP)
 Elements of FIP include:
– Notice and Transparency
– Consent and Use limitations
– Access and Participation
– Integrity and Security
– Enforcement and Accountability
 Applying Fair Information Practices to
geoinformation will be difficult

17. Legal Community Also
Starting to Notice
 Convention on Geoinformation initiated by International Bar Association.
 Intended to apply to all geoinformation, collected from whatever source, for
whatever purpose.
 Trying to address in one document a number of complex issues that are
critical to the geospatial community – such as privacy, data quality, intellectual
property rights, and national security.
 Would be signed by national government (like a treaty).
 Would result in a number of new regulations and burdens on industry (and
some government agencies) with respect to the collection/use/distribution of
geoinformation.
 Would increase the potential liability risks for industry (and possibly some
government agencies) and would also likely dampen the willingness of
individuals to contribute geoinformation (also due to liability concerns).
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18. Potential Impact on Innovation
 Greater regulation will result in
 Increased costs and expenses
 Longer roll-out of new products/services
 Risk of lawsuits will increase
 As a result . . .
 Geoinformation will be harder to collect/use/distribute
 Demand/market for geospatial products/services could
decrease
 Resulting in reduced incentives to innovate
 Impact the entire geospatial community
 What will the opportunity costs of not collecting be?
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19. 19
What Should Be Done?
 Raise awareness of role/value of geospatial
community and geoinformation:
 Complete economic, societal, governmental benefits
 Greater understanding of the impact of
legal/policy issues on geospatial community.
– Begin including in undergraduate/graduate studies
 Create regional/local forums that include all relevant
stakeholders.
 Develop appropriate legal and policy frameworks (as
necessary).

20. Thank You!
Questions?
Kevin Pomfret
Executive Director
Centre for Spatial Law and Policy
+1 804 928 5870
kevin@spatiallaw.com
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